Rhetoric & Prosody; Figures of Speech

Rhetoric & Prosody

What is Rhetoric?

Answer: Rhetoric is a literary and linguistic art in which ideas, feelings or arguments are effectively presented using words and sentences. It is also called "eloquence" or "oratory art". The main objective of retoric is to influence, motivate or celebrate listeners or readers.

Purpose of using Rhetoric in language:

We all know that a thorough study of Grammar is the first step to good composition. Grammarians have laid down certain rule relating to the form and construction of words, the structure of sentences, punctuation etc., and no composition can be faultless unless these rules are carefully observed.

But mere grammatical accuracy is not sufficient to make our composition perfect. Our language may be free from any grammatical inaccuracy and yet it may not express our ideas clearly, or it may be lacking in force and beauty.

It is Rhetoric which teaches us to remove these defects and lays down the conditions essential to effective composition.

Difference between Grammar and Rhetoric:

 The difference between Grammar and Rhetoric is that while Grammar aims only at the correctness of language, Rhetoric aims at the beauty and force of style*, and its function is to consider all the means by which we can enhance the effect of our language on the minds of those to whom it is addressed.

*Style, the word is derived from Latin stylus, an instrument used by the ancient Romans for the purpose of writing. The name was subsequently transferred from the pen to the particular mode of writing employed by the writer, and it is now used in the sense of the manner in which a man expresses his thoughts.

Figures of Speech

The term ‘figure’ (Latin ‘figura’) primarily means the form or shape of an object. Literally, a Figure Of Speech is like a rich and ornamental dress in which we clothe an idea for the purpose of making it remarkable and impressive., as when we say of Nelson, that he was his country’s shield, we use the word ‘shield’ not in its literal sense, but in the figurative sense of ‘defender’. Again, when ‘youth’ is termed as ‘the morning of life’, ‘old age’ as ‘the sunset of life’, or ‘the moon’ as ‘the queen of the night’, the expression used in each case is figurative.

In English Literature, a great many varieties of rhetorical ornaments are found. The most important of them may be classified in the following way:

a. Figures based on Similarity

(i) Simile (ii) Metaphor (iii) Allegory (iv) Parable (v)Fable

b. Figures based on Association

(i) Metonymy (ii) Synecdoche (iii) Hypallage (iv) Allusion

c. Figures based on Difference

(i) Antithesis (ii) Epigram (iii) Climax (iv) Anti-climax (v) The condensed Sentence

d. Figures based on Imagination

(i) Personification (ii) Apostrophe (iii) Vision (iv) Hyperbole

e. Figures based on Indirectness

(i) Innuendo (ii) Irony (iii) Periphrasis (iv) Euphemism

f. Figures based on Sound

(i) Paronomasia (ii) Onomatopoeia (iii) Alliteration (iv) Assonance

g. Figures based on Construction

(i) Interrogation (ii) Exclamation (iii) Chiasmus (iv) Zeugma

Readers are requested to click on the respective links to know more details about the particular Figures of Speech. 

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Read also:

👉 What is Prosody? | in English Literature  

👉 Go and Catch a Falling Star | important Figures of Speech